Truman women dispatch another MIAA opponent, improve to 11-2

KIRKSVILLE, Mo. – The Truman women took on the University of Central Oklahoma Bronchos Thursday night and won going away 72-39.

The game was never really in doubt for the Bulldogs, but they made sure to come out and put it away in the second half.

UCO trailed by 11 as the second half started, and in the next six minutes the Bronchos would find themselves down 20, their coach had been given a technical foul and they turned it over five times while missing four layups.

“We knew it was going to be a hard fought win. They remind us a lot of us. This was the best we have played by far this season,” said Truman head coach Michael Smith.

Truman locked in on defense in the second half only allowing UCO to score 17 points in the last 20 minutes.

“We have been working on being more consistent, and we knew 20 minutes wouldn’t be enough against a good team like Central,” said Becka McHenry.

Truman was the definition of offensive balance on Thursday, as every girl on the team scored at least one bucket. McHenry led Truman with 12, Jennifer Conway had 11, and Megan Sharpe had 10.

Amy Briggs who was back to her normal role as sixth woman off the bench, had nine, all coming from behind the arc.

“I thought the difference was our bench, in the middle of the first half when we put our bench in we didn’t lose anything. We put freshman and sophomores in and they played like juniors and seniors,” said Smith.

A 33-point victory can look glamorous, but Truman won all the effort battles against UCO. They outrebounded the Bronchos 49-29, outscored their bench 34-21, and had 21 second-chance points to only six for Central.

Truman has now won four in a row since returning from the West Coast by an average of almost 35 points a game.

“We have some tough games coming up, we have to make sure to take of things at home because the MIAA is such a tough league,” said Smith.

The Bulldogs have five conference games remaining this month.

“We are working on being consistent and communicating better, we knew those are our keys,” said McHenry.

The first of those five games is Saturday when TSU hosts Emporia State who comes in 7-5 and 2-2 in the MIAA. Truman is now 11-2 and 4-1 in conference.